White House Press Release - What You Need to Know About the President's Infrastructure Initiative

WHAT: On February 12th, President Donald J. Trump released a plan to build a stronger America.

President Trump's plan will use $200 billion in Federal spending to stimulate at least $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investments from partners at the state, local, and private level. The President is directing $50 billion of these Federal funds to go towards rebuilding and modernizing rural infrastructure, including broadband.

The President's plan will reform our infrastructure system to prevent the Washington bureaucracy and its overreach from holding back efforts to modernize our infrastructure. Authority and decision making will be returned to State and local governments, so investment decisions are based on the unique needs of their communities. The plan will also eliminate unnecessary regulatory barriers and streamline the permitting process for infrastructure projects to, at most, 2 years.

Further, the President is calling for critical reforms to Federal education and workforce programs, so American workers are ready and able to take on the jobs of today and the future.

WHY: Years of inaction have led to dilapidated and inefficient infrastructure across our country.

American infrastructure has received a near failing grade (D+) from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) since as early as the 1990s. Too many of our roads are in poor condition, tens of thousands of our bridges are structurally deficient, and countless rural Americans still lack sufficient broadband access.

Americans are losing time and money every day due to our deficient infrastructure. Average commute times have been rising for nearly a decade, and traffic delays are costing drivers billions of hours in wasted time and billions of gallons in fuel. ASCE estimates that failing to meet our infrastructure needs will result in almost $4 trillion in losses to GDP, $7 trillion in lost business sales, and 2.5 million lost jobs by 2025.

It is time to repair and modernize our crumbling infrastructure by enacting the reforms needed to build a stronger, more prosperous America.